Category: Accepting Christ is your choice

One more year


Today is my birthday. Wow!

When I was growing up, I never thought I would get this far. But, God has given me some more years to live and to serve Him. I’m not sure if my service to Him is doing much good these days, but if He is keeping me around then something that I have written or said may be touching someone’s heart. Likely it is because of His influence, my words and my writing can’t be that persuasive.

We all have an opportunity to serve God and to see if there is a gift that He has given to us to use for His glory. God does give each of us gifts and talents to use for His Kingdom, sometimes it takes us a while to find them or to figure out what to do with them.

One more birthday…what does that mean? I have been on this Earth for over five decades and I have known Jesus as my Savior for at least fifteen of those years. I have also been a pastor in His service for the past five years, learning and praying and reading His Word and watching the news and the things happening in our world.

I say these things not to brag about anything that I have done in my life because there is nothing that I have done which has been an accomplishment to be bragged about! I have been reading and watching the outcome in all of the world which things match up with God’s prophecies about this time, and these things are happening every day. Some of them are small and do not gain the attention of the media, especially with a Presidential election to cover.

Yes, God’s prophecies are coming to pass and it seems that some are doing so at a much more rapid pace than they have in the past. It is a sign of the age of the church and of the gentile nations coming to a close. When will this happen? The Bible is not specific enough for that, but I don’t believe that we will be waiting very much longer.

I pray that many of you who read this will be in prayer for our country and for yourselves because, when that day comes that Jesus comes for His church, His Bride, the option to choose to follow Jesus will still be available but it will be harder and more costly. Seek His wisdom and His will for your life, for your eternal life depends upon it. God doesn’t want any to perish, but the choice is yours. Choose Life!

Politically correct or wrong?


Every day we hear negative things being said about people in our society and by the political machine which has been going on for about 1 1/2 years or so. What good does all of this sniping and complaining do? None of it does anything positive for the country nor does it make each candidate look any better in the eyes of the voters.

Can we do anything about it? No, probably not, particularly because we live in such a “politically correct” society, not just in America but the entire world seems bent on not hurting people’s feelings. Yet, they are perfectly fine with killing babies in and out of the womb, and it doesn’t matter if someone kills himself or herself by being blown up by a bomb so that they can kill many people in the process.

Many of those who are being killed are Christians and they are being killed because of their faith in Jesus! This is only going to get worse. Politicians are talking about how they will do away with ISIS because of their terrorism toward us and Israel, but they have no clue how to go about it. I am sure that many of you who will read this will wonder why I am adding to the pile of negative junk in the media. My reason is that there is Hope!

Being PC in this world just shows that our ignorance is showing and that everyone can see it. Why? Because everything that is on the news these days is backwards and out of touch with the majority who believe one way while the ones who are crying or whining about some injustice make up only one to three percent of the population. Just as in a schoolroom full of children, one who is crying will get far more attention than 40 who are not, that is our society today.

One day very soon, Jesus is going to come back and take His church home. It will not matter whether you believe in Him or not, those of us who have given our hearts and our lives to Him will be taken up and away from here. Some say this is going to happen before the “anti-Christ” shows up, but I believe that we will be present during part of the Tribulation.

God will try us all by the fire of Satan’s wrath to be sure of those who believe in Jesus. Many will fall away from the faith, many will abandon their religious background and the church that they grew up in. The things which are happening right now are what Jesus spoke of as being the birth pains before the event which will rock the whole world to its core. Please seek Jesus in your life, in your Bible and your church while there is still time. We have the way to eternal life and it is belief in Jesus but if you refuse, then you only have yourself to blame.

I bring this up because it is my job to do so. I was called by God to be a pastor so I am doing the best that I can while I can to tell as many as possible about Jesus and His offer of salvation. Do I get any points for doing this? No, unless you accept Jesus as your Savior. Then, I will get to meet you in eternity and I will gain a brother or sister in Christ! Don’t turn away from Jesus while there is still time to ask Him to heal your broken heart or your relationships! He made the entire cosmos with His Word, so I believe He can do anything that you ask of Him, especially forgiving you and bringing salvation into your heart.

I had considered a picture or image for this post, but I realized that any image about political correctness would be wrong for the message that I try to give people here. Thank you for reading.

Love, where did it come from?


I know, there are going to be people wondering about my sanity now. Trust me, I know where I am going with this.

The honest answer to that question is very simple: It came from God! He wouldn’t have made our world the way that He did if He didn’t love us, all of us! God made the universe itself so that we could look out and see what an awesome God we serve! Why am I putting so many exclamation marks in these sentences? Because the point that I am making needs to be emphasized so people will notice it.

God put all of the planets together in our solar system in the order that they are because of His love for us. How or rather why do I say this? Because Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are all out past the asteroid belt and they scoop up or influence any comet or other body so our planet doesn’t get slammed like the moon or Mercury.

I know that our planet has been hit in the past by meteors which have done some serious damage, but not to the extent of wiping humanity off the face of the Earth. Love came to us through the acts and the intent of God because He loved us before He created Earth. In His Word there are many references to His love for us and we should be able to see it in everything around us every day! If you can’t then there is something wrong.

Why do I say this? It is because of the questions and the angry outbursts which will come after this hurricane. So many people killed and put out of their homes by a storm which moved so slow, couldn’t God stop it? Yes, He could have, but what will come out of this storm? People helping people who have been made homeless, people helping those who are injured by the debris or by walls falling, food and shelter will be given and provided by people who didn’t have to do anything but they were moved with compassion to do something.

What is it that makes us be compassionate in times like this? It is because we are made in the image of God, all of us can see the needs of those who need help and if we can help, we should. Satan has a temporary claim on the rulership of this world, but his time is growing shorter by the day. He knows this and he is trying to cause as much pain and suffering in this world as he can. Not so much to punish us, but to make people question whether God cares for us or not!

God loves us, all of us. It is because of His love that many of us are still here, and those who have been killed by these storms or earthquakes or wars are casualties of Satan’s hatred for humanity! Give your life to Jesus and follow Him because when you look at the signs all around us and the prophecies in God’s Word, you can see that there isn’t much time left for this world before He comes! Amen.

The Lord is….


Good always and in all ways He is good! The title of this piece is the first three words of the 23rd Psalm which I would think most people know at least part of. I am going to write it here and give some exposition on it in my limited way. Thank you Lord for your grace and mercy toward us today. You are the Creator and our Redeemer and I praise you for all that you have done for us and what is coming in the future. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

The Lord is my Shepherd;

I shall not want.

Those few words mean a lot to Christians and believers alike because He is our Shepherd, leading us through our problems day by day. He provides for us in ways that we may not see with our eyes or even be able to touch with our hands. His desire is for us to be secure in Him, regardless of our situation, whether it is in poverty or with much wealth we are rich in blessings and our eternal home is sure.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

The next verse is a calm assurance that we are provided for in our life. He will give us strength and a peace that we can get through whatever life may throw in our path because He is with us, no matter what happens. With Jesus as your Shepherd, guiding your life and following Him every day, there is nothing to fear.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the

paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

God restores our soul by His power when we come to Him and ask His forgiveness for our sins and the lifestyle which went with them. Following Him will take us through life with an attitude of righteousness, not a haughty “I am better than you” kind, but a calm and peaceful way to live that others may want it. God loves each of us dearly.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

God is our Creator and is all powerful, so there is nothing to fear when we are walking with Him. He will defend us and take care of us and our needs. He will place angels around you and your family to keep the evil one away from you. His rod and staff will keep us safe in times of trouble, no matter where the trouble may come from.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Even when you feel like you are surrounded by enemies, God is with you. He will give you comfort and rest with His Presence and heal you from your afflictions, whatever they may be. He will make sure that you are blessed in ways that you cannot see, but you will feel as if you are being filled to the brim with blessings and love.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Living and walking with Jesus will give you a spirit of mercy toward others because of His presence in your life. If you truly walk with Him daily, you will be a better person because of it and others will see it. Maybe they will even ask you what gives you the peace that you seem to have, even in times of trouble. That is when you should tell them about Jesus! Because it is He and the Holy Spirit Who gives you this spirit and the peace which goes with it. The reward of a life lived with Him is according to His Word, “in the house of the Lord forever”, Jesus said that there are many mansions in His Father’s house and He went to prepare a place for us. If He went to prepare a place for us, then He will come again to receive us, the church, up to His house! Where we will dwell with Him forever, Amen.

Was God created?


It seems to be a very silly question, yet many people seem to be asking this very thing. It sounds almost like the question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”

Was God created? The point is when you try to answer it, there is no answer except God.

It seems that this is a question that is asked by people who, for whatever reason, don’t believe in God. Rather, they think of Him as being a created being rather than the Creator! Our concept of God comes from the Bible, it doesn’t come from the church or the opinion of some pastor or other theologians. The very first sentence of the Bible, “In the beginning, God…”, God is there before the beginning and He will be there whenever it is time to come to an end of the universe.

Some people like to think that God is like us and that is false. We are created in His image and the only way that He can be like us is if we make Him that way. This is idolatry, because we are making Him in an image of us, an image which makes us comfortable with His being, with His ways because when we make God in our image we see Him as being like us.

God was not made, He just is, and He lives in a universe which is parallel with this one, but outside of time and our vision as well. This is the reason that our natural vision, which is limited to this “plane” so to speak, cannot see the spiritual forces around us. If we could we would most likely be frightened most of the time! After all, looking outside to see a demon hiding in a bush or one flying overhead would be enough to send plenty of people to church I would think.

The “realm” which God and all other beings like angels and demons are free to move about in, is here with us every day yet it is outside of our limited vision. We can’t see it unless God allows us to see it, which is probably a very good thing. Although, I believe if people could see the things in and around us everywhere, there would be such a massive revival of faith in God until it would undo much of the work of Satan in just a few weeks or months.

God is the Creator and it is He who created all of the beings, both human and angelic, whether they are fallen angels or humans who disavow belief in God, and it is because of this that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for mankind. It is not God Who condemns us to an eternity in hell, it is us! Each of us has a decision to make in life and that one very important decision is whether to believe in Jesus as our Savior or not. If you happen to end up with the “not’s” who don’t believe or don’t want to believe in Him, then you will be placed in hell with the angels who rebelled against God so long ago.

It is YOU who determines your eternal home, not God. It is your choice, your sins, your refusal to believe in Jesus and the atonement which is freely given IF you believe in Him which will send your eternal soul to hell and the lake of fire! God did not create hell for humanity, but if you decide that you don’t want Jesus then you are in the same camp as those angels who didn’t want to serve God, and you will get the same punishment!

Why do I bring this up today? Because many people need to hear this it seems. If only because of so many choosing to leave the church because they don’t want to believe in a god who would send people to hell, when the reality and truth of the matter is that it is YOU who determines your eternity, by your own choice! God doesn’t send you to hell, you just end up there because of your choice in this life to not follow Him.

Broken pieces


Do you ever wonder how things get fixed in your life? What about in a pottery shop? In many ways the same thing has to happen to us that happens in a pottery shop in order for healing or fixing to be done.

A bowl which isn’t just right will be broken, then the pieces will be wet with water to make them pliable again, then they will be melded together into a lump of clay and placed back on the wheel. Then, after the breaking and molding and spinning and shaping is done, it will soon be in the shape that it was supposed to be in the first place.

Your life and mine are like that too. Many times we are going along, content with where we are and not really thinking about God much anymore. Why? Because, our life is good! We have everything that we need. We have enough money, our bills are paid, our health is pretty good, and our family is doing pretty well too. This is the way that many people look at life, whether they are Christians or not.

But…then part of your foundation cracks. You get really sick and you have to use some of your money to pay for treatments. The medical bills start piling up. Your health goes from good to not so good in a matter of days or weeks. This is the spot where most people will hit their knees and start praying for God to make His Presence known in their lives, right NOW!!  If you are a Christian, God hears your prayer but He doesn’t show up at your leisure or on your timetable.

Yes, He can put you back together again, but until your heart decides to stay close to Him on a daily basis He just might make you work for Him or even better He will make you wait until He decides to show up. God is not the cause of your pain and suffering, but He can use it, just like the pottery, to change you and mold you into the person that He knows you can be.

Some people, even some pastors, teach that God is the cause of your pain and suffering because He is trying to teach you something. I don’t believe that God works that way. He will allow your circumstances to bring you to the brink of breaking and then show you the way out. What good will that do? It will cause you to lean on Him and depend upon Him during the times when you are going through a tough period in your life. Then, when you have recovered from that, hopefully you will stick by Him even when life is going good!

Actually, that is the time that you should be sticking close to Him. Why do I say this? Because, it is God who blesses you with life and health to enjoy your days and your life that is why. I can’t think of a better reason to stick close to Jesus than when things are going good, but when things get bad that is even a better reason.

Faith, do I have enough?


We all have a measure of faith, whether it is a small measure or a large one, each person has some faith. Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed, which isn’t much bigger than a period at the end of a sentence, can move mountains IF we don’t doubt God! God’s Word is full of all sorts of events which happened because of the faith of the people. So, do you have enough?

Of course you do and I do too! Why do I say it that way? Because, our measure of faith is our portion which is given to each person. Some of us have a large measure of faith, which you can see working in a person’s life. Will God use pain and suffering to teach you to have faith in Him? No! He will not! Some preachers teach this, but God loves you and He is a good and just God, so why would He hurt you in some way to make you grow?

God will allow Satan to have access to you and he will test you in one way or another, just as He did with Job in the Old Testament. He lost everything including his health, but he would not blame God for it! He held onto his faith in God’s goodness and God’s provision even when things were not going very well for him.

Have you taken a step in faith? Even when you can’t see the way ahead of you, whether it is a spiritual journey or one in this life every day, God wants us to prove our faith by stepping out in faith so that He can fulfill that part of your life. I don’t mean that you should test God, that is not the same as stepping out in faith.

If you have prayed about something earnestly and in your spirit you feel that God wants you to do something like be a preacher or an evangelist, then step out there and His blessings will follow. Some people use this the wrong way and buy a new house or a car and they justify it by saying that God said so. Maybe and maybe not. If you can afford it and it doesn’t put a strain on your finances then it may turn out to be a good thing.

God doesn’t have to provide the money if you jump out there and buy something that is way outside your ability to pay for. He will allow you to do this because He wants you to realize that you did that yourself, He wasn’t part of the decision. You can convince yourself that you have heard God’s voice telling you to do this, but it is very likely that it is Satan. He will cause you to do something stupid and convince you that it was God telling you to do this and then laugh at you when you can’t pay for it!

Faith is something that God gives you through the Holy Spirit when you have given your heart to Him. Some of us have a lot of faith, some of us have a little, but a little bit of faith can do a lot when it is faith in God. Make sure that your faith is in Jesus and God and them alone because if your faith is in yourself or in your job or money, then your faith is in temporary things.

Think about it and make sure about your salvation, because tonight may be the last time you get a chance to make that decision.

Sadness and heartache


So many people go through these feelings and problems, I say problems because of the things which cause sadness and heartache. What causes these feelings? It can be a divorce, or the loss of a job, or the loss of a spouse. Honestly, any number of things which happen every day to people all over the world can cause them. Why am I bringing all of this up? Because many people who have lost loved ones, whether it is a recent loss or it may have happened over a year ago, are still grieving and in mourning.

I went through a divorce twenty-seven years ago and my mother and grandfather died twenty-one years ago. I am not saying that losing a parent or grandparent is the same as losing a spouse because it isn’t. A divorce is not the same either because your spouse is still living, the only thing which died was the marriage itself which can die for a number of reasons.

Sadness, depression and heartache do happen to all people and they are tough to get through without an anchor, without something to lean on. Some people look at Christianity as a crutch and think that Christians are weak, but that isn’t true. Meekness is valued in our so-called religion, but being meek is just controlled strength. Life challenges us to be better than we can be on our own, whether it is through loss of someone important or a job or whatever it is which you have lost.

God can guide you through these problems with His Word and show you exactly what being a child of God really means. The depression which accompanies these problems is usually not very easy to handle either, which I found out about in 2014. Again, why am I bringing all of this up? Because, I feel there are many people who truly need to know that God loves them, regardless of their place in life or their needs. HE is there and all you need to do to enjoy His Presence is to seek Him out. Will He listen to your problems? Yes, He will. Go through His Word and read as many Psalms as you feel that you need to. Pray about all of the suggestions and the love that is contained in them.

Then, ask Jesus to come into your life and into your heart. Repent of your sins and begin life with Him in a Bible-teaching church. Why do I say this? Because He is necessary to a full and abundant life.

If you have ever felt an empty place in your heart or your life, that is the place where Jesus fits. Nothing else fits in that place, but many people try to put something else in it all of the time. Some try drugs, some use alcohol, some place their family in there, some put their career in it, but the problem with all of these is that they don’t fit exactly and they still feel like something is missing. It is because Jesus is missing and until you realize it, there will always be an empty feeling there.

Jesus said, “I am with you…”


jesusiswithyou Have you ever considered why Jesus came down to Earth in the first place? It wasn’t just for Israel, although He had hoped they would recognize Him. His sacrifice of giving His life for all of us and our sins was necessary and He was the only sacrifice which would take care of the Law’s requirements.

We, as Christians, should know that He came to give us strength and a purpose in life. While we are here, whether we are going through good times or bad, we are to glorify God! Give Him praise for our life and the blessings that we each receive every day! Why would we do that? Because it is not by our own strength or our will that our lives are the way they are, it is because He and the Father are directing our lives in such a way that we can and will give glory to God for all of our blessings!

Amen.

One in Essence,Three in Person


This is a question that has been on my mind for a few days, because I was asked about it by a very sweet lady who happens to be a Pentecostal by way of her association. Our Creator is One in essence, yet three in Person. It isn’t a hard thing to understand unless you want to deny God being God! He is God, He is the Holy Spirit of God and He is the Living Word, the Son of God!

I don’t mean that God exists as three gods, He is God in Three Persons, yet all of them…each one is as much God as the other! It is a difficult doctrine to understand unless you have some help from Him!

“And now the Sovereign LORD (the Father) has sent me (the Son), with his Spirit (the Holy Spirit).” Isaiah 48:16

Even at the time that Isaiah was a prophet in Israel, God revealed to Him that He was and is three persons in One. Not three gods, but One God with three persons Who in each are also God. Each person of the Trinity is God, but each has a different function. Just as I am a husband, a father and at one time I was a son before my parents passed into eternity. Three functions in One Person is the most apt description of God as a triune godhead.

Just as all things in the universe have a three-fold nature, so does God. Matter has substance (mass) plus energy and motion; time is made up of past, present and future; space is made up of length, width, and depth or height. Their nature doesn’t make them any less than what they are, but take away even one of their parts and you don’t have matter, space or time anymore.

If you take this to a logical conclusion which many skeptics seem to be willing to overlook, the Son of God is also God the Son! The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the trinity and He is fully God, but His influence in our lives is more of a teacher and leader in spiritual things. It is He that resides in your heart and mine, if we have given our lives to Jesus and asked for Him to come into our lives and our hearts.

The Spirit of God was the Person of the Trinity hovering over the waters before creation. What were the waters? I don’t know, you will have to save that question for God Himself. In either case each part of the Trinity is just as much God as the Other. They perform different functions and do different things in this world and in the spiritual realm, but each of them is still God.

When God told Moses that “No man could see His face and live”, He meant that. Which is why when He hid Moses in the cleft of the rock and allowed him to see His back. Later, when Scripture mentions the Angel of the Lord with a capital “A”, this is the pre-incarnate Christ, not an angel. The Spirit or Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity which carries out miraculous healings and resurrections and other signs like being understood by someone who doesn’t speak your language. He also prays for us in our time of anguish and doubt when we are so burdened until we can’t say what is necessary.

In reality, it took the intervention of all three to save each person who is a Christian. Think of it this way: God sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins, Jesus died as a human with the nature of God in order to pay the price for humanity’s sins, and the Holy Spirit convicted you of your need for salvation and brought you to the cross to meet Jesus. If it is too hard to understand, ask a little child. The only time that we will know the answers will be when we are standing in His Presence, and even then we may still not understand it.